Traditionally, before entering an indoor establishment, such as a home, office or building, an entrant wipes his or her shoes (e.g. using a doormat, welcome mat, carpet, etc.). While the act of wiping shoes superficially removes some debris from the sole of the shoe, there still remain germs, debris, micro-organisms, bacteria, dirt, dust, and other such unsanitary matter. In an instance, a sample of shoes were found to have nine different species of bacteria including bacteria capable of causing stomach, eye, and lung infection. Often, coliform, a bacteria mostly derived from human and animal waste, can be found on footwear. Furthermore, in one research study, footwear was observed to transfer bacteria to tile floors in a house ninety percent of the time. Carpets are also known to harbor significant amounts of bacteria brought in from external sources. As compared to a toilet seat, which can be found to house thousands of bacteria, footwear can harbor millions of bacteria. The amount of unsanitary matter present on a persons shoes is generally understood.
Given the unsanitary nature of people's footwear, there exists a risk of transference of infection, bacteria, and viruses to indoor environments and the people who occupy such environments. For instance, children who often spend time on the floor playing are vulnerable to germs tracked into a home, especially provided some children are prone to placing hands in their mouth or using hands to rub their eyes. Generally, unsanitary material is easily tracked into homes, offices and other spaces as a result of insufficient cleaning and disinfecting of footwear prior to entering a space. Currently, the existing mechanisms for cleaning footwear are insufficient at disinfecting the footwear. There is a significant need for devices or tools to better disinfect, clean, and remove unsanitary matter from a persons footwear in an efficient and convenient manner.